The Lilycove Collector's Fair
by LittleMewLugia
Summary: Lawrence IIIJirarudan and Julie, his half Articuno pokemorph wife, visit Lilycove in the Hoenn Region for a Collector's Fair being held there. However, events take a sinister turn when Julie is kidnapped and finds herself up for auction.
1. Chapter 1

The Lilycove Collector's Fair

Part One.

Lawrence was just playing the computer at holographic chess in his flying palace when he heard the lift down below whirr to life. Querying the computer, he found that it was, as he had thought, Julie, his half-Articuno wife, returning from her work flying mail between the Shamouti Island Post Office and the nearest mainland sorting office-which was at Fuschia City.

Julie did a regular mail run every other morning from Shamouti Island to the mainland. She would collect the Shamouti Islanders mail from the Post Office at 10.30 AM, fly it to the Fuschia Sorting Office, pick up the mail for the Islanders while she was there, and bring it back to the Shamouti Post Office by 2.30PM. People could then come to the Post Office to pick up their post. As before she began this the post had arrived and departed once a week on the ferry (or twice a week in the tourist season) this made Julie quite popular on the Island.

She did not deliver parcels, as she had a limit to how many and how much weight she could carry, they had to stick to the one a week ferry deliveries. Julie would deliver on other days if what was being sent could not wait till the next day-for example, she would run urgent blood samples to the testing lab from George's hospital (and pick up the results when they were ready, if necessary). However, she was careful not to allow people to take her generosity for granted. Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and of course Sundays, were her days off that duty (although she had other duties on that day, such as helping Lawrence out at the newly opened Shamouti Island Gym.)

Both had the required experience and Badges, and had passed the requisite tests set, and had been approved by the League, although Julie, of course, had had an extra, and very stressful, job of convincing people that she should be allowed to battle as anything but a Pokémon herself.

Lawrence told the computer to save the game, and hit the "descend" switch on his chair. As it descended smoothly, he saw her waiting for him at the bottom, in the Reception Room, her small mail sack at her feet. When the chair came to rest, he got up and picked the sack up. Looking in, he saw they had some letters, which explained why she had not left the bag at the Post Office. Walking back to the chair with her, he sat down and extended an arm to her, and she happily sat on his lap as he instructed the chair to ascend to the living quarters that lay directly below his Exhibition Hall.

She did not have to go up this way, there was a service lift she could have used, and Lawrence always left a window open on that level in case he wasn't in or she needed to fly in. However, Lawrence and Julie were still very much in love, and Julie took any chance she got to snuggle into the crook of Lawrence's arm-which suited Lawrence just fine as he loved to hold her there as much as she liked being there.

When they got to the living area, they went through to the lounge, and they sat next to each other on the sofa, leg touching leg and wing touching arm or side, as Lawrence opened the mail and read it, holding it for her to read if it concerned them both.

Lawrence opened one letter that when he read it proved to be from one of the collecting clubs he was still in. Although Lawrence now steered clear of collecting living things for display purposes, he still collected inanimate objects that caught his eye, and he also trained Pokémon. In it was an advertisement for a big collector's fair that was visiting Lilycove over a weekend in a fortnight's time. Lawrence looked at it for a time, then put it aside, but Julie could tell he was disappointed.

"What's up?" she asked. "I can tell you want to go, what's stopping you?"  
"Well, we have duties here on the Island, what if we go and someone turns up wanting a battle?" he asked.  
"Look, I think we deserve the odd break, don't you?" she asked. "Anyway, the ferry arrives on Mondays and the one departing back to the mainland, and those to the other Islands don't go till Tuesday and Wednesday. Arrivals from the other Islands don't get here till Thursday. If they're desperate for their badge, they'll hang around, we'll just put up a "Back on Monday" notice. I think we deserve a break, just for once in a while, and to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't mind a wander around that place for a look around myself."

"You must be joking! Do you know what sort of a risk that could put you in? I know some of the sorts of people these things draw, and I don't want you near any of them! I am not risking losing you to someone who would only see you as a pretty to be collected!" Lawrence said sharply.  
"Do you really think I'd go with anyone other than you?" Julie asked him heatedly.  
"No, not at all." He said. "What I'm concerned about is that some of those types wouldn't give you any say in the matter. The world of collecting can be a very dirty business, Julie, and I don't want you ending up being drugged, kidnapped, traded on the collecting Black Market and being put in someone else's private collection and never seen or heard from again by anyone else."

"I see." She said, rather shaken. "There is a Black Market in collectibles then?"  
"Oh yes." he said. "If you want it, they can often get it for you-for a price, and of course the more you want the item, and the rarer it is, the more it costs. I tend to find it easier and cheaper to spend time looking for or advertising for what I want, even before the year 2000, but even I used it on occasion, to get items that were very few in number, or unique. The latter are usually stolen to order for the person in question. The Legend Tablet I had in my machine was stolen from this very island. After the 2000 incident, I had it salvaged and gave it back to the islanders. It's in their museum, protected by one of my force-fields. That doesn't make it un-stealable, but it would make a thief's attempts to take it difficult." He smiled. "It's also booby-trapped. Anyone who tries to deactivate it will succeed-until they go inside its sphere of influence, at which point the force-field will re-activate, trapping the would-be thief inside until someone finds him. To prevent them trying to break out, it is one of the models that is designed to subdue living things by sending them to sleep."

Julie smiled too. "You're crafty, but far-seeing." she said. "However, I would still like you and I to go to this thing for a break."  
"What about the children?" he asked. He was talking about their two-year-old twins Alan and Amber.  
"Rachel would take them for us for that time." She said. "Or Rachel's mother would, or George and Donna, or John and Fiona. Or we could give Adele them for the weekend-you know how much she's been threatening to kidnap them for an hour or two to give them a cuddle. She and Tobias would love to have them for a weekend to cuddle to death and spoil rotten!" 

"Okay, the Gym's been discussed and sorted, and so have the kids, but we still haven't sorted the question of keeping you safe." He said.  
"Well, I still have some flowing robes Donna made for me when I was still rather self-conscious about my appearance." She said. "I could get Donna to knock me together some sort of headscarf and full-face veil, and some make-up will conceal what little of my face will show."

"I'd still like some sort of back-up or fail-safe." He said. "Maybe I could, just for this event, catch you in a poké ball beforehand so I can recall you at the first sign of trouble."  
"Absolutely not!" she said. "You promised to treat me as a human! I'll only go in one of those things if it's absolutely essential, life-or-death, and this does not count! It won't be any good if we get separated. Anyway, even if we're together and you recall me, all they have to do then is attack you and steal the poké ball, and a poké ball is easier to sneak out than someone my size!" Julie said angrily.  
"Yes, I'm sorry, you're right." said Lawrence. "I could fit something around your leg-like a ring."  
"Like ringing a bird, you mean? That's also rather demeaning to me, but more importantly, it could very easily be removed, and I can't see it stopping me being taken in the first place. If they can hide me as effectively as you claim, that will do no good, on or off my leg. It would only help if they left it on me and if I were subsequently discovered, and that's two too many ifs for my liking." She told him.

He sighed. "You're right, of course. Maybe I should just go on my own."  
"I'm fed up of not being able to do things because of what I am." She said. "I want to be able to do as much as I can and go where I can. If I stay away because of every perceived danger, I won't go anywhere! I think I can trust my robes, your presence, and my abilities to protect me. I've never been to one of these things and you've awoken an interest in collecting in me. Please let me come, I'll be really careful! Now you've alerted me to the potential dangers, I can watch out and be suspicious of anything odd."  
"I wonder?" Lawrence mused. "Julie, I don't think you're going to like it, but I have an idea that might be just the sort of back-up I'd feel happier with."  
"Well, what is it?" Julie asked.

Lawrence explained his idea, and as he had predicted, Julie didn't like it one bit. Once more, she felt it was demeaning and treating her like a Pokémon, but apart from that, she had no argument against it, despite trying. After half-an-hour of heated debate in which he explained why it was the best idea so far, and she demanded certain changes, she reluctantly agreed to it, as she didn't want her stubborn streak to cause him to go alone, or even worse, for neither of them to go. Lawrence, for his part, was relieved. He knew he couldn't have dared go alone in case she decided to turn up at it anyway-which would have been even more perilous to her.

On the evening before the event, Julie tried on her concealing robes. The green floor-length poncho still fitted her, covering everything from her neck down, and Donna had rigged an easily-donned headscarf and veil arrangement that left only her eyes, and the skin around and between them, exposed. They had experimented with various cosmetics, and found one that covered up her blue skin (and disguised the fact that it was slightly feathered) wonderfully.  
"Those robes, flowing although they be, won't conceal the shape of your wings if you move them around too much." Said Donna. "It's probable that people wouldn't notice, unless they were watching for any flaws, like me, but be careful all the same." She said.

They had dropped the children off earlier that day with Tobias and Adele. The children had been introduced to the Headman and his wife more and more over the intervening two weeks, and had already spent one night with them, so there were not too many grizzles and tears when Julie and Lawrence had left them that night. Lilycove was in the Hoenn region, several hours' travel away, even at Lawrence's flying machine's highest speed. They would leave at dawn, and planned to arrive within the collector's fair's first hour of opening. Lawrence had contacted someone in the area that had an open space large enough to accommodate the flying palace, and had rented it for the day off the delighted owner.

On the way, Lawrence helped Julie put on her concealing garments. Her tail was carefully wound over her shoulders and around her waist, and they used lots of slides and grips to pin it into place. A tight lycra and cotton skull cap was used to cover her head feathers and her crest was carefully smoothed down underneath it. Then the facial make up was applied, followed by the concealing robes.

They arrived as planned, and Julie and Lawrence went in, Lawrence paying for the tickets. He hung his own entry card around his neck on a fine but strong and attractive gold chain, and hung Julie's on a matching chain around her neck. Lawrence ushered Julie in, his arm around her shoulders, making it patently clear to all observers that she was with him. Julie found the whole thing rather overwhelming. The hall the fair was being held in was absolutely enormous. The stalls seemed to have pretty much anything anybody might ask for. Julie saw feathers, uncut and unset jewels, jewellery, shells, furniture, items of clothing, statuary, key rings, plush poke dolls, paintings, and much more.

Some stalls also sold items relating to the display and protection of a collector's exhibits. There were rigid card and document holders, wooden, stone and plastic bases to stand things on, and glass domes of all sizes, including a couple that would have comfortably covered her with her wings fully spread. There were force-field generators and alarms, plastic covers and folders for cards. Glass and plastic display cases were on show, with objects placed within for demonstration.

Lawrence was well known in the collecting world, it seemed. He was frequently stopped, sometimes for very long periods of time, by acquaintances and stallholders. A few of the conversations were interesting to listen to, or the person would ask Lawrence to introduce Julie, and Lawrence would happily oblige. Most of them however, left her out and were on subjects that Julie found rather dull. During one of these conversations, Julie wandered off to look at the items offered on a nearby stall. There was a fair crowd around it, and as Julie pressed closer and craned her neck to see, there was a shift in the crowd, and she was severely jostled.

She instinctively spread her wings halfway for balance, felt them confined by people either side of her. She might have fallen over if one of the people to her right hadn't put out his arms, catching her about the upper wing bones and steadying her, running his hands down her wings as he made sure she was fine. She stepped aside from him with reassurances that she was fine, thank you, and decided to find a less crowded stall to look at.

She didn't look back, so did not see the man who had steadied her regarding her with a slightly puzzled look. Then he looked thoughtful, watching her as she moved away. Then the look on his face changed, to a calculating and greedy, covetous look. Looking around to make sure Lawrence wasn't watching, he quietly slipped away after her, not catching her up, but making sure that he never lost sight of her.

From a distance, he observed, watched, and made plans. Had Julie known of him and of his thoughts, she would have immediately headed back to Lawrence. However, she did not, and moved further away through the cavernous hall, unwittingly getting lost.

Lawrence finished chatting to his friend whom he had not seen for years, rather relieved to get away from the old bore. He had insisted on telling Lawrence about the newest additions to his model railway collections, and as plenty of time had passed since their last meeting, this took some time. Then he wanted to catch up on what Lawrence had been doing since they had last met, and for politeness sake, Lawrence had to explain. It was when he had turned to introduce Julie, and found her gone, that he quickly excused himself and went to look for her. He guessed that she had probably got bored and started looking around the stalls. He was sure that she was probably okay, but he would feel much better once he had caught her up again.

He did not realise he was heading in the opposite direction to that which Julie had gone.

Julie came to one stall that seemed to consist of poké balls with individual designs, and a selection of Pokémon. Some or the Pokémon were there in cages. Julie looked. There was something labelled as a Smoochum, another labelled as a Porygon, and another identified as Magby. There were also pictures on the cages, and Julie noticed that the pictures seemed to be different. She asked the stallholder about them.  
"These are Pokémon that are uncommon enough in general, but these are even more special." He opened the cage containing the Magby, and Julie noted that although it was fire-type, it did not burn him. She knew that this meant it trusted him. "This Magby is a different colour to your standard Magby." He turned in a book to a picture of a normal Magby, and sure enough, its usual form was red, while the Magby the stallholder was holding was pink. Putting the Magby back, he showed Julie his catalogue of these "shiny" Pokémon. Most of them, he explained, were in poké balls, but one or two did not mind being in cages for a short time for display purposes, and these he rotated every two hours. Petting the Magby, he then put it back in its cage.

Julie also noticed that he sold dart guns and darts, and he explained that some collectors didn't like to catch Pokémon in poké balls, others only collected but did not train them, so wanted something with which to stop attack by wild Pokémon. Julie remembered that John had had a similar, but less good quality) dart gun for keeping her and Rachel under control, and, feeling uncomfortable, moved on.

Five minutes later, the man tailing her moved to the stall, purchased a dart gun and darts, and continued to follow her.

Julie looked about her, and realised that she was not only lost, but that she needed to go to the toilet. She had thankfully mastered how to deal with that need in her robes, but didn't know where the toilets were. Seeing a man wearing a steward's tabard, she approached and asked where the ladies toilets were.  
"They're out of the hall." He explained. "I'd show you, but I've got to stay here. If I can find you a pen and piece of paper, I can draw you a map" he said.

At that moment, the man who had followed Julie approached, hearing the end of the conversation.  
"I know where they are, I'm heading for the men's room myself." He explained. "I'll show the lady the way."  
"Thank you!" said Julie.

He put his arm round her shoulders and led her away. Julie wasn't particularly happy with the familiarity of his touch, but didn't want to seem ungrateful or cause a scene. He was probably just being friendly. The walk seemed to take an awful long time, but eventually he led her down a corridor, which had a sign for the toilets and a sign for the car park.  
"I'll go, and wait for you here, and I'll take you back." He told her. He walked into the men's, but quickly came out again once she had gone in the ladies.

These were not frequently used toilets, which is why he had brought her here. He slipped his hand into his coat pocket, slipping his hand around the handle of the dart gun.  
"I'll soon find out precisely what you're hiding under those robes." He muttered. "I don't know how, or why, but something tells me you're not entirely human."

When Julie came out, he was waiting for her. As she turned to go back out the way she had come, he stepped behind her, put his hand over her mouth, and darted her.

She let out a cry, but his hand essentially stifled it. He put his other arm around her waist as she struggled, and lowered her to the floor as her struggles weakened. He released her only when she was totally limp, and quickly looked under, and then divested her, of her robes. He took her ID card off too, after checking it for her name.  
"Well well, I know of several people who would love to have such as you for themselves. No wonder Lawrence kept you under wraps." He quickly removed everything she was wearing except the clips, as he saw that they would make carrying her much easier. He loaded her into the back of his van, started it up, and drove away.

Lawrence had made no progress in finding Julie, asking each stall keeper he went to if they'd seen her. It was an hour later before he found a stallkeeper who remembered Julie and her distinctive green robes. It was the shiny Pokémon seller. He told Lawrence which direction she had gone in, and Lawrence hurried that way. Asking around, he soon got to the steward, and asked if he'd seen her.  
"Actually, yes. She asked me for directions to the ladies toilets about half-an-hour ago. I couldn't take her, so one of the other attendees offered to show her." He frowned. "That's odd. They should have been back by now, they're not that far."  
"This person who offered to show her the way. What did he-or she- look like?" Lawrence asked.  
The steward described him, and Lawrence responded with a strong expletive. He didn't stop to explain to the steward, but rushed out of the doors, and looked all over for Julie.

It was half-an-hour later that he looked down the little corridor, and found her robes and entry pass lying discarded on the floor. Lawrence's heart sank. Julie, he knew, was long gone. Lawrence had recognised the description that the steward had given him, knew who the man was. He had helped Lawrence obtain some of his collection pre-Year 2000. The man had no interest in collectibles for himself, but specialised in procuring desired items for others, sometimes legally, many times not legally. The man was one of the many suppliers for the collector's black market.

Julie was in serious trouble.


	2. Chapter 2

Part Two.

Julie's first sensation as she returned to consciousness was of cold. The surface below her was chilly to the touch. Her mouth was dry, her head ached, and as she opened her eyes they felt gritty.

She was lying on her side; one wing half-folded awkwardly under her, on a damp, hard concrete surface. As she shifted, trying to sit up and free her trapped wing, the events of earlier came back to her. The walk to the toilets, being grabbed and her cries stifled, and being darted. The weakness and drowsiness that had overcome her as the tranquillising fluid had entered her system. Then her awakening here, although she had no idea where "here" was.

Her efforts to sit up were hampered by the rope that tightly bound her ankles together. By wriggling, and bending her knees, she managed to sit up, but it took a lot of effort. She saw and felt that thick sacking bags had been put over each of her feet and securely taped to the rope around her ankles. She couldn't use them to stand on or defend herself should the need arise-which it was bound to. This worried her, for it showed that whoever it was that held her captive was worryingly thorough.

Looking around, she found herself in a medium-sized cage, about three-foot square and about the same height. Its concrete floor was the surface she had awoken to find herself lying on. Looking through the bars around her she could see other cages, and each one contained a Pokémon of one kind or another. One or two of them paced their cage, or gave the odd cry, or both. Others had tired of this behaviour, and lay, sat or stood still, or slept.

There were some Pokémon there that Julie had never seen before, and a few that were familiar in form, but not colour. Three of these Julie recognised as being like the ones that the stall holder at the fair had showed her that morning, which he had called "shiny". There were two more unusual-coloured Pokémon there that although they were not the classic colour, they were not, Julie knew, "shiny."

Both were familiar to her, and in fact were very common where they occurred. One was an Oddish, a plant type, and the other was a Pikachu, the electric mouse. Although Pikachu were normally a yellow colour, and Oddishes were indigo below and green above, both of the specimens Julie was looking at were a very bright shade of pink.  
Julie had heard of the restricted Pokémon sanctuary of Pinkan Island. This island was the only place that a particular berry known as the Pinkan berry, grew. It grew on Pinkan Island in abundance, and was a staple food for all the Pokémon that lived on the island. A side effect of this, however, was that the skin of the Pokémon that ate it turned pink, and if the berries were eaten over a protracted period of time, the pink coloration became permanent, even if the Pokémon never ate the berries again. The Pikachu and Oddish had obviously been taken from Pinkan Island and brought here, and this worried Julie.

To safeguard the Pokémon on Pinkan Island, an Officer Jenny was permanently stationed there, to deter and apprehend potential poachers. Even landing on Pinkan Island was an imprisonable offence, and the Officer Jenny there was very good at her job, and was used to the methods of poachers. She had a high-speed bike that helped her to patrol the edges of the island and reach any places that she suspected that poachers had landed. For these people to have landed, poached the Pinkan Island Pokémon, and got away without being detected or apprehended, spoke of a professional and organised group being behind it. Whoever they were, they knew where to hide, and how to cover their tracks.

Julie raised her head as she heard approaching footsteps. As she watched, Julie saw a man she did not know walk into the small uneven room that contained the cages that held herself and the captive Pokémon. He was heading directly for her cage and he halted about three feet from her cage. He watched her, looking over her feathers and her half-spread wings. A slow smile began to spread over his face. It was not a pleasant smile, and Julie shivered under his cold, impersonal gaze. 

"I'm told you can talk. Not many Pokémon have that ability." He said and Julie realised he was addressing her. A small flicker of hope rose in her. If she could explain who she was and how she got that way, was there a possibility that he might release her? He continued to talk.

"That's not a costume you're wearing either, everything is attached, I checked, but you're not exactly a classic Articuno either, although that is what you most closely resemble. What are you?" he asked.

"I'm half-human." Julie explained. "I was altered by a scientist, using cloned Articuno DNA and a teleporter that has now thankfully been dismantled." She hoped that he might accept her humanity and let her go, although previous experiences told her that this was unlikely. Full humans, she knew, tended to consider anything that was not entirely human as something less than human, and as such, inferior.

"Did you inherit any of Articuno's skills? Do you fly, for example?" he asked her.  
"I can fly." She told him, already guessing from the question that he would not be swayed by her humanity.  
"And the attacks? Did you learn those as well? I assume that you cannot peck, as you lack a beak, but what of Articuno's elemental skills. Did you inherit those?" he asked.  
"Why do you ask?" She said, wondering just why he was asking her these questions. What was it to him?

Again he smiled that cold smile as he looked at her. "I'm trying to assess what qualities you possess, because I need to work out what sort of price people might be willing to offer for you, not to mention what the lowest price we'll accept will be. Some of our clients would pay more if you possessed certain skills."  
A moment later he had his answer, as an incensed Julie let loose a blizzard directly at him.

Brushing snow off himself, he shivered, glaring at her. The smile was gone but then it returned, thin and colder than ever.  
"There's a great deal of interest in you since a picture of you was sent to the email accounts, mobile phones and PokéNavs of likely interested parties." Pulling out a mobile phone with an in-built camera, he quickly took a picture of her before she could react. "There's another to send, one of you awake, to whet the appetites of those who might want you. As if the other pictures we took while you slept were not enough." He put the phone away carefully in his pocket. "I'll get that sent as soon as I go back up." He told her.

"Your appearance alone has generated a lot of interest for collectors of the rare and unusual. There are collectors out there who know they cannot have Articuno itself, but would be happy to accept you as a close second best. Talking and blizzarding might not matter to such as Marcus, who keeps his living collectibles of Pokémon and of the odd, attractive and bizarre walled up in their own compartments, held in position by wires, or lying sedated on a plinth under glass. He feeds them using tubes directly into the bloodstream or into the stomach, and he's expressed a lot of interest in you."

"Nathan too, would have no interest in attacks or ability to talk, as he does not even require his collectibles to still live." He told her, apparently oblivious to Julie's involuntary cry of horror at his description of Marcus's collection. "You see, Nathan buys rare or unusual Pokémon, than has them killed and stuffed. It's low-maintenance, you see-they don't need to be fed or walked. Nathan is too busy to bother with such things. He and Marcus will both be trying to buy you, they'll be here in person." Julie's eyes were big with fear, and this time a glint of satisfaction entered the man's eyes. He knew exactly the effect his words would have on her, and was getting his revenge on her for blizzarding him.

"Neither would it matter to Albert, who likes to take his Pokémon for walks on leads around the grounds of his house." He said. "He prefers his Pokémon to have as few abilities as possible, for he'd never use them, although I suppose he might find your ability to talk an asset if he gets lonely and wants a reply to anything he says. I'd watch yourself if he gets you, though; he won't tolerate any lip from you. "

"Symon, Philip, and Francis are three collectors who keep their living exhibits in force-fields. Of these, the best would have to be Philip, as he buys only the best quality fields, and Francis buys the cheapest he can get, which are, of course, not the safest you can get." He looked at Julie, before speaking again.

"Of course, there is interest from two collectors who keep their Pokémon in re-creations of their natural environments, so if you're lucky, one of these two may get you. I doubt it, however, such a high-maintenance method of keeping them means that they are unlikely to be able to afford more than Marcus, or Nathan." He smiled at her again, shifting his position, enjoying her discomfort.

"There are also three or four trainer-collectors I can inform now that I know you possess the skills. A bit of training might curb that temper of yours and do you some good, in my opinion. Fighting Pokémon battles can be quite lucrative if you're good enough to win them, so I've heard, so maybe one of them might have enough to buy you. If not, such a varied number of interested parties should force your price up. No, I don't think we'll have any problems shifting you. How to advertise you, though? "Flying Articuno Ice-Queen", maybe." He chuckled, sketching a mock-bow towards her. "I'll think of something, and I'll be back down to bring you up when it's your turn to be sold. You're a late entry, of course, but I know some of those we've contacted can get here in time. Most of them have already said they're coming based solely on seeing your appearance."

He turned and walked away, leaving Julie a lot to worry about.  
In the meantime, Lawrence had fallen back on Plan 'B'. He went back over to his machine once he knew that Julie had gone, and why, and made several phone calls to people he knew might be able to give him clues, whether voluntarily or otherwise. Some calls resulted in evasions or no answer or a message that Lawrence's contact was away. Some of these alone gave him information on who might be involved. Other contacts, some of who knew Julie, gave any information they had willingly. He made one last phone call, to call up some nearby help. Picking up a portable GPS screen, he went outside and waited for his helpers to arrive. When they arrived, it would be time to track down Julie.

Julie had had plenty of time to worry about which of the prospective buyers might get her at this sale. None of her possible fates appealed to her, but dying was definitely one she hoped desperately to avoid. Neither did she fancy being immobilised and tube-fed. However, the man had hinted that it was one of these two that was most likely to get her, so this was worrying.

The force-field option too was worrying, for Julie knew more about force-fields than she had ever wanted to, for Lawrence had lectured her one night on the subject. The man had stated that one of the three collectors he had said were interested in her used the cheapest possible, and Lawrence had told her that cheap ones were often not geared to the long-term preservation of the health of the living creature placed inside. Most force-fields, Lawrence had told her, even the best ones, had at least one negative effect on living tissues, and the cheaper they were, the more of these negative effects they were likely to have. Also the longer the organism was in the force-field, usually, the greater the effect of the negative effects. Julie didn't think an early release for her, once put in such a field, would be likely.

It seemed that Julie's best three chances were to be bought by a man who wanted to walk her on a lead, one who would put her in an ice environment, or someone who would train her as a Pokémon. How likely one of these three were to win her in the inevitable bidding war that would precede her purchase, she didn't know. None of the three options appealed to her, but they were the three best of those she'd been given, and she might even be able to explain her situation to them. If she was really lucky, she might find her buyer was sympathetic and would let her go, but she knew that the chances of that were virtually non-existent, and the higher the price paid for her, the slimmer that chance would get.

When the sound of footsteps announced the return of her captor, her anxiety level rose.

Lawrence and his companions gathered around Lawrence's tracker screen as he switched it on. He had tied it into the scanners of his airship the Hikokyu, and he'd keyed it to the frequency of the microchip/transmitter Lawrence had got George to implant in the skin at the back of Julie's neck. Using the Hikokyu's scanners and GPS facility, a map of the area was displayed, and a winking light indicated the transmitter's position.

"She's not been missing for more than two hours, so I figured they couldn't have moved her far in that time, but I didn't expect to find her this close!" he murmured. This was a stroke of luck. He'd thought he'd have to take his companions up in his airship to search further afield, but had first decided to check the immediate area, and had thus been fortunate to shave some time off the search.

He turned, trying to locate the source with his eyes, maybe a building or a ship. His eyes lit on a large chunk of rock with what looked suspiciously like a cave mouth in it. "The signal is coming from in there." He announced. "It doesn't look very likely though, because it only looks a small area. Maybe they're storing her there until a later date?"

"No, it's bigger in there than it looks." Said one of his companions. "A criminal gang called Team Aqua once used it as a base: it extends under the seabed for a bit. It might explain the suspiciously high amount of boat traffic to and from it: we don't promote exploring it as a tourist activity, although it might be an idea to deter other criminal groups from using it in the future"

"In fact, a lot of people have left the collector's fair over the morning and then taken a boat out there. You think there's a collector's black market auction going on in there? It might make sense: the potential clientele could go to the fair and be near enough if something they're interested in comes in. Then the black marketeers can abandon it quickly afterwards." Said another of Lawrence's cohorts.

"Let's get a boat, then, and hope we're not too late." Said a third. "I have a boat moored nearby, and we can go and check it out."

The seven of them-six of them female-headed as one for the boat.

Julie had tried to blizzard the man in a last desperate attempt to escape as he unlocked her cage, but with her feet secured as they were, it was doomed to failure. He grabbed her by her ankles and with a twist flipped her onto her back so her blizzard sprayed harmlessly into the air, than roughly dragged her out of the cage feet-first. Quickly grabbing a wing and using this to help turn her, he then pushed her face down onto the floor and sat on her back as he dug a reel of thick tape out of his pocket. Ripping a piece of with his teeth, he leaned forward and plastered it over her mouth. "That's enough of that!" he snarled. "No more trouble from you!" Then he rolled her onto her back, forced her wings closed against her body, and picked her up.

"You have attracted a great deal of attention, and the money they are willing to pay for you will make up for the trouble you've caused us. Come and meet your adoring public!" he said mockingly.

Despite her struggles, he carried her up some stairs into a small room with a raised platform and it was on this that he stood. There were at least a dozen people there, Julie noticed, maybe more, and all of them were regarding her with covetous looks in their eyes.

"Here it is, number forty-seven, the Ice Queen, the Articuno-form creature you all came here to see!" he cried out, putting her down at his feet none too gently. "As you can see, it appears similar to Articuno, possessing the crest and even the tail." He brushed her tail down off the platform towards the crowd, and immediately several hands shot up, vying with each other to stroke and handle the tail. One or two tugged it experimentally, causing Julie to give a muffled cry and wince.

"As you can see, it is finely feathered and beautifully formed. I am reliably informed as well for those of you whom are interested, that it talks, can fly, and I can personally attest that it can blizzard, which would suggest that there are other Ice-type skills available to it."

"What are its wings like?" one person asked.  
"Yes, I want to see the wing span." another cried.  
"Are the wings soft? I want to feel them!" a third called.  
"Dan, give me a hand here in spreading it's wings." The man called. Another man came over, muttering "Okay Stu." Grabbing a shoulder and a wing each, the two pulled her wings spread. Then Julie felt herself turned on her side and one of her wings was pushed into range of the crowd. Hands reached up, stroking, tugging, brushing her wings, One person pulled hard at a feather and Julie cried out, her cry again muffled by the tape on her mouth.

"Oy, no damaging the goods before you buy!" said the first man, the one his companion had called Dan. "If you win it, once you've paid, you can do whatever you want to it but till then, don't damage it!"

"Can I touch the legs?" another man asked. Dan nodded to the man he'd called Stu, and they sat her upright, then lowered her down the platform, each holding her by a wing and in her armpit so she as dangling uncomfortably. The crowd pushed forwards and Julie felt cold, impersonal hands run down her legs, feel up her side, caressing the white feathers on her front. At a nod from Dan, he and Stu crouched, putting her more in range of the excited crowd, some of who felt her nose and face and ears and the feathers on the back of her head. One of them took the tape off the neck of one of the sacks around one of her feet, and examined her bird feet, keeping his face and fingers well out of the way of her flexing claws.

Julie felt herself slip further down the slope as Dan and Stu knelt and let go of her armpits, only holding her by her lower wing bones. Abruptly she felt her feet make contact with the ground but then the crowd surged forwards and worked together to pin her against the sides of the platform. They restrained her and stilled her struggles as they took it in turns to examine her, some seeming interested in minute details of her body, running their hands up through her feathers. One questing hand found her breasts and nipples. "Definitely female." he observed, his fingers lingering somewhat longer than Julie was comfortable with. At his pronouncement, several other hands moved to explore the same area, and this further assault on her dignity, this violation, brought tears of anger and shame to her eyes. One of the people, a young man, her noticed, and he raised his hand to slap the aggressively familiar hands aside angrily.

"Leave her alone you bunch of perverts!" he said. Julie could feel one hand that had not got the message moving uncomfortably high up the inside of one leg. Thankfully the guy defending her dignity noticed it and pulled it off before it reached its intended destination. "I said cut it out! No-one here wants to buy damaged goods! This is an auction, not a strip club! How about more bidding and less touching?"  
"Well said, Marcus." Dan said. "So who will offer me a price?" Julie, who had been feeling grateful to the young man, felt her spirits drop. Her rescuer was the one who walled up people and fed them through tubes? She'd thought him a knight in shining armour, but being bought by him would consign her to a living death.

One of the men immediately suggested a price, which Dan dismissed with a sneer.  
"For something with the looks and abilities of this? It talks and blizzards, among other things! Try suggesting a serious price!"  
"Blizzarding and talking is no good to me!" declared an older man near the front. "All I want it for is its' skin and bones. It would make a lovely addition to my collection of stuffed curios!" Julie shuddered. This had to be Nathan: Dan had not invented him just to scare her.

"Nor would her blizzarding and talking be any good to me!" said Marcus. "None of my Pokémon or other living things are required to talk or do anything else except be in their places, sedated and causing no trouble. I like to look at my pretties, not talk or train them."

"You ought to give training a try." Said another man nearby. "You might find you enjoy it, it's certainly productive, both my Pokémon and I enjoy a good day's training. Don't knock it till you've tried it."

"Perhaps I might one day, but not with that one. It might look beautiful mounted on wires with its' wings spread to show their full glory, in the wall of my sitting room, perhaps. Or maybe I should sedate it and have it under glass, its' wings and tail arranged to display them to full advantage?"

"Talking or non-talking, it doesn't matter to me." said a third man, dark-haired and bearded. "I have an Ice-environment to put it in, and it can do what it likes there, as long as I have it for me. As an Ice-type, it should find my Ice-type enclosure quite comfortable."

"I have a state of the art force-field ready for it." Another man stated. "I want it in my collection."

"Gentlemen, gentlemen." Dan interrupted. "We know you all want it, that's why you are here. The thing is, there are more than twelve of you, and only one of this creature. I've never seen anything its like before, so I would say it is quite unique. Only one of you can have it, so may I suggest somebody make me a sensible offer, and we'll move on from there." He nodded to Stu, who helped pull Julie up so she was sat on the edge of the platform-still within reach of the crowd, but not surrounded by them.

Somebody-Julie didn't see who, shouted out a five-figure number from the back, and the bidding started in earnest. After a few minutes, two people were obviously forced to drop out, shaking their heads and moving to the back of the crowd with disgruntled looks on their faces. Had the situation been different, and her liberty (and in at least one case, her life) not been in peril, Julie might have been flattered to hear the figures being offered by people in their desire to own her.

Bidder after bidder dropped out as the offers climbed. She saw the Trainer who had addressed Marcus shake his head and back off halfway through: then the man who had announced he had a force-field hesitated, made one more bid (which was immediately topped by Marcus) and then back out, and then a few more backed off too. There were four people left at that stage: Marcus, Nathan, the bearded ice-environment man, and an older man who was carrying an Eevee with bows in its' ears on a delicate-looking lead. She could only assume that this was the Pokémon walker-Albert, she recalled his name was. As she watched, the bidder with the Ice environment dropped out. It was now between Nathan, who wanted her stuffed, Marcus, who wanted her displayed under glass or in his wall, and Albert, who would probably put bows and a lead on her. 'Death, living death, or some old man's pet. Not much to choose between them.' she thought to herself.

At that moment, there was a disturbance from down the tunnel leading to the entrance, and the bidding tailed off uncertainly. Someone ran in yelling "Police! Scatter!" Julie felt and saw the people below scatter, but then she felt herself hauled up. It was Dan, and he was trying to carry her off down a corridor. So close to freedom, Julie had no desire to be taken off again. Julie was having none of that, and as Dan picked her up, she struggled wildly, flexing her wings and making his job more difficult. She remembered she had one foot uncovered when it bumped against Dan's leg, and she kicked her legs at him, clenching the uncovered foot when it connected. Dan howled and dropped her-she had struck a lucky blow and connected with his thigh. Ignoring her, he tried to flee, but ran straight into an Officer Jenny who dispatched him with a well-aimed karate chop. 

Suddenly the room seemed full of Officer Jennys, one of whom ran over and called out "I've found her! She's here!" The Officer took the tape off Julie's mouth, un-taped and removed the other bag from her foot, and set to work on untying her feet. There was scrabbling from the platform, and then Lawrence had climbed up and rushed over to her. The Officer Jenny was having difficulty with the knotwork of whoever had tied her feet. Lawrence had already taken his 65-function Swiss army knife out of his pocket, worry and concern written all over his face. Pushing the Officer Jenny aside, he quickly but gently cut through the ropes binding Julie's feet, sweeping her into his arms as the Officer Jenny cleared the remains of the ropes from around her ankles.

Julie cried out in relief, throwing her arms around him and sobbing with released tension and relief as he cradled her gently, stroking the back of her head and neck, stroking and soothing her back. He kept up a low murmur of reassurance, and then he straightened up.

"I'm taking her back to the Hikokyu. We'll give statements later." He said. It was not a request, and nobody dared contradict him. As he swept Julie into his arms, Julie noticed that Dan, Stu, and her original kidnapper (who had run out from another passage when she wasn't looking), as well as Nathan, had been apprehended and were being questioned by three Officer Jennys. She couldn't see Marcus anywhere, and irrationally she hoped he'd escaped. More Officer Jennys ran in, and Julie realised reinforcements had been called. She noticed they all had Abras, and Lawrence saw her looking at them. Lawrence whispered to her: "Rapid response team: they're spread all over Hoenn, they have Abras who can Teleport to whatever Poké Centre is nearest to where they're needed, and can be almost anywhere within five minutes. They were probably called in when the first six realised how big a Black Market ring this was." 

Lawrence carried her out and wouldn't put her down even when she said she was capable of walking. He took her into the Hikokyu, and took her up in the chair to the living quarters. Sitting her down, he got her a glass of water and a straw, and cooked something for her and made her a cup of tea. He helped her eat the food and drink the tea, and then carried her through to his huge bed. Laying her down on it, he lay close by to her and she snuggled in close. Throwing his arm over her, she reciprocated with a wing, and they both sighed with weariness. It had been a very long day for them both.

Five minutes later, they were both asleep.


End file.
